Westerfeld, Scott by Specials

Author:Specials [Specials]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-08-08T16:14:47+00:00

The two crept out of

the camp and around the outcrop, to where the breeze and crash of waves would cloak their words in a steady roar. Now that Zane was moving, his trembling had started again. As he settled himself next to her in the scrubby grass, Tally didn't look at his face. She already felt revulsion threatening to rise up inside her.

"Do

the others know about me?" she asked.

"No. I wasn't

sure myself. Thought I was imagining things." He touched her shoulder. "I'm glad I wasn't."

"Can't

believe I fell for that stupid trick."

He chuckled. "Sorry

to take advantage of your better nature."

"My

what?"

In the corner of her

eye, Tally saw him smile. "You were protecting us that first day, weren't you? Moving the hoverboards out of sight?"

"Yeah.

A warden was about to spot you. Bubbleheads."

"Thought so.

That's why I figured you'd help out again. Our own personal protector."

Tally

swallowed. "Yeah, great. It's nice to be appreciated."

"So

is it just you?"

"Yeah,

I'm all alone." It was true now, after all.

"You're

not supposed to be out here, are you?"

"You

mean am I disobeying orders? Afraid so."

Zane nodded. "I

knew you and Shay had some trick up your sleeves, letting me go. I mean, you didn't really expect me to use that tracker." He reached out and took her arm, his fingers pale against the dull gray of the sneak suit. "But how are you following us, Tally? It's not something inside me, is it?"

"No, Zane.

You're clean. I'm just staying close, watching you every minute.

Eight city kids in the wild aren't very hard to spot, after all."

She shrugged, still staring out into the crashing waves. "I can smell you too."

"Oh."

He laughed. "Not too bad yet, I hope."

She shook her head.

"I've been in the wild before, Zane. I've smelled worse. But why didn't you ... ?" She turned toward him but lowered her gaze, focusing on the zipper of his jacket. "You set a trap for me, but didn't mention it to the other Crims?"

"I didn't want

to panic everybody." Zane shrugged. "If a whole bunch of Specials were following us, there wasn't much they could do about it.

And if it was just you, I didn't want the others to know. They wouldn't understand."

"Understand

what?" Tally said softly.

"That this

whole trip wasn't a trap," he continued. "That it was just you. Protecting us."

She swallowed - of

course, it had been a trap. But what was it now? Just a joke?

A pointless waste of time? Shay, Dr. Cable, and the rest of Special Circumstances were probably already waiting for them at the Smoke.

He

squeezed her arm. "It's changing you again, isn't it?"

"What

is?"

"The wild.

That's what you always said - traveling to the Smoke that first time, it's what made you what you are."

Tally turned away to

stare out at the ocean, tasting its salt in her mouth. Zane was right - the wild was changing her again. Every time she crossed the wilderness alone, the beliefs the city had instilled in her were shaken up. But this time around, Tally's realizations weren't making her particularly happy. "I'm not sure what I am anymore, Zane. Sometimes

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